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MADISON, Wis. (10/13/09)--CUNA Mutual Group is introducing an optional Identity Theft insurance program for credit union directors, officers and employees as part of its new Management and Professional Liability Insurance (MPL) policy. Identity theft is a complex and ever-changing crime, said John Wallace, CUNA Mutual Credit Union Protection product executive. “The unlawful use of personal identifying information drains resources from businesses, government agencies and consumers alike,” he said. “It can take considerable effort to repair identity theft-related damages, including time and expenses.” There are nearly nine million identity theft victims in the U.S. annually who invest 55 to 130 hours and $1,200 to $1,500 out-of-pocket to resolve the issue, according to the Federal Trade Commission. This process can span months or years. About 47% of identity theft victims needed a year or more to restore their identity, said an Identity Theft Resource Center study. When an insured individual’s personal identification information is compromised and used unlawfully, CUNA Mutual’s Identity Theft insurance will cover fees related to:

Insured individuals also will receive Identity Theft Restoration and Consultation services from a licensed investigator during the entire resolution process. CUNA Mutual is partnering exclusively with Kroll Fraud Solutions, a division of Kroll, a risk consulting company, to provide the services to policyholders. Kroll Fraud Solutions serves more than 10,000 businesses and millions of individual consumers in the areas of data breach and identity theft discovery, investigation and restoration. Identity theft insurance is optional as part of MPL coverage for credit unions renewing their current policies on or after Jan. 1 in most states. MPL is a new policy designed to protect credit unions and the personal assets of their directors, officers, volunteers and employees from a growing number of litigation exposures related to operating a credit union. MPL is part of CUNA Mutual’s Credit Union Protection insurance and risk management portfolio designed exclusively for credit unions to manage their financial, operational and personal risk exposures. The program includes:

NEW YORK (10/13/09)--The amount of data stored by databases is growing at a rate of 25% yearly, and some financial institutions have deployed technology to eliminate data duplication, according to BankTechnology News. Storing a massive amount of data can strain information technology (IT) architectures (Sept. 1). Simply updating a member’s address can prompt a system to resave the entire member file even though nothing else has changed, the newspaper said. Virginia CU, Richmond, Va., has implemented a NetApp solution to cut down on data duplication. “We’ve seen an 80% savings on backup copies, 78% in Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, and we’re routinely achieving 25% on home directories and group shares, 35% in our live documentation environment, and 50% savings in our scratch volumes,” Rich Barlow, senior systems architect, told the newspaper. Because deduplication cuts on data protection capital and operation expenses, it should be on “every chief information officer’s project short list,” according to a report from Milford, Mass.-based The Enterprise Strategy Group, an industry analyst firm. Aside from freeing storage, reducing data duplication also yields “green” benefits, the report said. About 70% of business executives measure the success of corporate green initiatives by tracking energy cost reductions. If IT staffs can align with green business priorities, cutting power consumption via deduplication “is a great start,” said Lauren Whitehouse, senior analyst, in the report.